Rebecca Taibleson sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, a nominee for the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, facing fire not from Democrats—but from conservatives who say she isn’t “pure” enough for the bench.
Despite her résumé—federal prosecutor in Wisconsin, clerk to Antonin Scalia, ally of Brett Kavanaugh—the right-wing pushback has been unusually sharp. Dozens of conservative advocacy groups, including the Family Research Council and Gun Owners of America, have accused her of being soft on ideological loyalty. Their charge: donations linked to her and her husband, some of which went to Democrats and progressive groups, prove she’s not the kind of judge who should carry Trump’s legacy forward.
Taibleson tried to set the record straight. “I was raised in the best tradition of debate,” she said, invoking the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, assassinated last week. She insisted her personal disagreements with her husband, Benjamin Taibleson—himself a prosecutor who donated to Democrats—don’t define her jurisprudence. “We may not agree on everything in politics,” she told senators, “but we agree on what matters most in our daily life.”
The skepticism, however, was on full display. Senator Ted Cruz bluntly framed the concern: “The fear is that you’re secretly a closeted liberal and would be an activist on the bench.” Still, Cruz admitted that several respected conservatives vouched for her, praising her legal career.
Republicans on the committee largely closed ranks behind her. Senator Chuck Grassley reminded colleagues that Taibleson publicly defended Kavanaugh during his bruising 2018 confirmation battle, a move Grassley said showed courage at a time when Democrats staged what he called a “partisan spectacle.”
Democrats, meanwhile, opposed her on more traditional grounds, criticizing her judicial philosophy. Senator Dick Durbin, however, also chastised conservative activists for attacking her religious congregation and charitable donations, calling it “a new low point.”
The White House isn’t wavering. A spokesperson reaffirmed Trump’s confidence in Taibleson, describing her as exactly the kind of constitutionalist judge the president wants shaping the federal bench.
For Taibleson, the hearing was a test of whether loyalty to Trump’s vision means strict ideological alignment—or whether credentials and conservative pedigree are enough.
